“Four Songs” of Bill Viola – Experimental Video Songs
Abstract
The author focuses on the work of Bill Viola from the period of 1970s, when his work was experimental and clearly in the avant-garde, and the young artist was busy exploring various possi- bilities offered by media. The article deals with the 1976 tape Four Songs, which from the researcher’s point of view shows an overlap of performance art and exploration of the media, through manipulations of video material, and its transformation at the level of signal. The analysis of more video excerpts from the cycle of Four Songs, leads Pitrus to conclude that Viola’s experiments dealing with technology and the character of the medium paradoxically have a deeper meaning. The work of Bill Viola not only brings a coherent vision of the video as a medium, but also contains a vision of the world. In this sense his experimental work from the 1970s constitute a preparation for his artistic expression in the following two decades, which express this vision in even greater depth.
Keywords:
Bill Viola, avant-garde, technologyReferences
Blake, William. 2002. Collected Poems edited by W. B. Yeats. London-New York: Routledge.
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Blake, William. 1972. Poezje wybrane. Trans. Z. Kubiak. Warszawa: PIW.
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Viola, Bill. 1995. Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
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Authors
Andrzej Pitruskwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Medioznawca, profesor nauk humanistycznych w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ. Zajmuje się kinem współczesnym, a także reklamą, grami wideo oraz sztuką nowych mediów. W 2012 r. ukazał się tom zbiorowy pod jego redakcją: Olbrzym w cieniu. Gry wideo w kulturze audiowizualnej. Obecnie pracuje nad monografią artysty wideo Billa Violi.
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